U.S. INFORMATION SERVICE ACTIVITIES IN AFRICA TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 1963 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:10 a.m., in room H-322, U.S. Capitol, Hon. Barratt O'Hara (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. O'HARA. The subcommittee will come to order. We are happy to have with us today the Honorable Edward R. Murrow, Director of the U.S. Information Agency, and others from the Agency. The subcommittee has been interested in the report of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Information. The subcommittee is especially interested in and pleased by the statement, "Director Edward R. Murrow has labored hard and well on behalf of the U.S. foreign information program. He is to be commended for having added stature to USIA." That is the finding of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Information following its study mission to Africa. Mr. Murrow, will you proceed? STATEMENT OF HON. EDWARD R. MURROW, DIRECTOR, U.S. INFORMATION AGENCY Mr. MURROW. Mr. Chairman, thank you for your kind invitation to appear here this morning. My knowledge of Africa is not that of an expert. I have made but one trip of approximately 1 month to the west of Africa in my capacity as Director of USIA. Recently, the Deputy Director of the Agency, Donald M. Wilson, visited eight countries and USIS posts in northern and eastern Africa. I have taken the liberty of suggesting that he accompany me to share with you some of his impressions from that journey. With me also is our Director of USIA activities in Africa, Mr. Edward V. Roberts. He accompanied Mr. Wilson on his trip and is our prime adviser in all things African. I believe, sir, your interest lies in a report of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Information to the Congress on operations of the Agency during calendar 1962. A portion of that report dealt with Agency operations in Africa and was written after a trip to that continent by the Chairman of our Commission, Mr. J. Leonard Reinsch. I shall comment upon that report. With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I should like also to render a type of progress report on matters discussed between us when last I appeared before you in February 1962. Following the remarks I make, Mr. Wilson will take a brief time for his comments, and then Mr. Roberts, Mr. Wilson, and myself will be glad to try to answer any queries you and the committee wish to raise. The basic purpose of our information effort in Africa is to provide the African people with the opportunity to understand the United States and its people, our Government, and its policies. As the African Continent explodes into the second half of the 20th century it is important to the security of the free world that our interest in Africa be clearly understood. The African people need to know that we wish for them and their governments their freedom and their independence. We support their desires for economic and social advancement and political stability. We recognize that Africa has its own rich cultural heritage and established social customs and institutions. We respect its pride in its achievements. We know that although Africa is eager to learn about the United States, it wishes also to avoid being overwhelmed by alien cultures. Our information program acknowledges that Africa is concerned first of all with its own vast problems of education and development and that the African people are interested in the United States and our position on world issues largely in terms of Africa's own needs, interests, and attitudes. We identify with these African concerns and portray America and our policies in terms of what they mean to that continent as well as to ourselves. Specifically we seek: To present an image of the United States reflecting sympathy and understanding of the difficulty Africans face as they try to achieve rapid development. To indicate the United States in no way wishes to see the nations of Africa become pawns in the cold war. To encourage without pressure or implied threat an understanding by Africans of the democratic bases of American society and life. To correct African impressions in the face of hostile misinformation about the United States, including the progress and achievements of the Negro in American society and to remind Africans that 19 million American citizens are Negroes. To describe the American experience in building a land and a people as relevant to the African need for growth and development, showing that in our own mutual beginnings we are all children of our own revolutions. To give special emphasis to the youth of Africa in achieving all of these objectives. To show that the United States favors African unity. To show that the United States favors self-determination. The Chairman of our Advisory Commission traveled to Africa in the summer of 1962. He visited 10 countries. Before his trip our African area rendered extensive briefings on the countries he would visit and the problems we faced in those countries. It is indeed gratifying to have the Chairman of the Advisory Commission visit Africa and then confirm the Agency's judgment by endorsing policies being implemented by the Agency. Let me briefly mention the aspects of the Commission's report dealing with Africa. First was the comment of erroneous application of European techniques to the new continent of Africa. The Agency, Mr. Chairman, agrees. It is a problem that has engaged the concern of the Agency for almost 2 years, a concern that we shared with the Advisory Commission Chairman before he made his visit to Africa. Our position regarding new techniques in Africa is much improved. But the problem remains. Our African areas representatives are still absorbed by how better to reach the new Africa. Part of the difficulty is due to incredible growth, as this committee well knows. There are today 35 countries on the continent; 6 years ago there were only 11. The concomitant for us is a rapid growth of need for good staff. Experience in Africa is in short supply. That is a drawback only time can remedy. Our corps of African officers is growing. They are better today-and far more numerous than they were when I assumed this office 2 years ago. Two years hence, they will be even better. In addition, we engage a number of local employees-citizens of the country-to aid in our work. We have an intensive program of training that goes far beyond mere indoctrination and routine matters. This past year we had eight workshops in different parts of Africa to give practical specialist training to our African local employees, two workshops in films and equipment, one in press equipment, two in library science, two in exhibits, and one in administration. Our next such workshop is scheduled for radio techniques and equipment in April. By such efforts we improve our techniques of reaching Africans. To improve our Foreign Service staff of native Americans who work abroad, we have a junior officer trainee program for young people up to age 32. In the last few years the caliber of persons recruited by the Agency has risen markedly. I have seen and talked with many of these incoming officers. They are splendid young Americans officers of university student bodies, editors of college newspapers and scholastic leaders of classes, able young journalists and writers, with a general language proficiency that is gratifying. We give these "JOT's," as they are called, 9 months field experience before they are given permanent assignment as a Foreign Service officer-1963 will see 18 of these young officers infusing our Africa operation with the best of new young American blood. Further, the gradual development of officers with African experience means that each of our varied media operating out of Washington now has African experience assigned to it. No longer are media products fashioned without exposure to officers who have been with target audiences in Africa. As our experienced African officers increase, this circumstance will become progressively better. It is worth commenting briefly here upon the nature and variety of our African media output. I invite your attention to those portions specifically targeted to African audiences. Our wireless file-a worldwide press news service has a special African area desk concerned with news and events particularly oriented to Africa. The file is now received in 32 African countries. It goes out nightly, averaging 12,000 words. Half is in French. Excerpts from it, along with other materials prepared in Washing ton, are placed directly with chosen recipients by USIS, as well as placed in local periodicals and other media. We also publish two monthly news magazines-American Outlook in English, Perspectives Americaine in French. They are mass distribution magazines aimed primarily at secondary students and lower level civil servants. One hundred and thirty thousand copies in English are produced by USIS-Accra, 55,000 in French by USISLéopoldville. Motion pictures are particularly effective to communicate where literacy is low while still appealing to more sophisticated and educated audiences. We have thus increased our documentaries on Africa from three last year to eight this year-including a film on the United States as seen by Africans studying here, documentaries on the development of the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville), and a threereel color film on Algerian independence. Next year, we hope to make 22 such films. Our monthly film magazine, Today, continues its growth and success. It is largely filmed by Africans and produced in close liaison with our African posts which have African audiences in mind. A report on Africa recently published in Moscow made this observation: The U.S. Information Agency *** is a powerful weapon of American imperialistic propaganda in Africa*** [It] periodically produces newsreel films on current world events entitled "Today" which are regularly shown in 200 African moving-picture houses in 12 countries in English, French, and Arabic. Nearly 2 million Africans have already seen such films. This Soviet account was wrong only in its figures. The Agency film "Today" is seen not in 200 but in 746 theaters, not by 2 million but by 75 million people throughout Africa annually. Our television activities in Africa increase as television there grows. We now produce for monthly placement in Nigeria a special 15-minute targeted series, "Personal Report," narrated by a Nigerian graduate student at Howard University; the astonishingly popular "Let's Learn English" and the advanced course, "Let's Speak English," the "Focus" series-political specials produced for Nigeria, Liberia, Kenya, and the Rhodesias; TV specials on Americana produced for Algeria, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and the Rhodesias. Our radio arm, the Voice of America, is on the air 35 hours a week to Africa. Approximately half of this is news and features programed exclusively for Africa by the African area desk of the Voice. Ten and a half hours are in French, 7 hours in English. In addition, 79 hours of worldwide English, broadcast to many continents, goes to Africa as well. Just 1 month ago this Agency inaugurated a new shortwave transmitter complex on the coast of North Carolina which is the most powerful radio transmitter in the world. It doubles our Voice of America power. With it we now lay down a signal that is audible and competitive in parts of Africa hitherto unreached by our shortwave radio. In Liberia we have now two transportables helping to relay that signal. These can be air transported anywhere in the world that need or crisis demands. At the moment they reside in West Africa, broadcasting live in English and French and Arabic and tape in Swahili, Hausa, and other African languages. By the end of this year we hope to activate our large relay station in Liberia, the new $14 million installation that will give us a dominant voice in most of Africa south of the Sahara. Let me defer for a few moments, Mr. Chairman, comments upon our plans for that installation. The Agency is engaged in other miscellaneous activities. To cite one significant example at random, we have regional women's affairs officers. Their job is to guide and assist women of a foreign land to organize local, national, and international groups for participation in civic, Federal, and international affairs where women can make a contribution. In general, of course, the most important level of Agency activity is that of personal contact-foreign service officers in daily face-toface communication with foreign cabinet ministers and government leaders, businessmen and executives, editors and writers, educators, students, and opinion molders, presenting to all of them in vivid firsthand terms the policies and purposes of this Government. The Commission's next comment was directed to the multiplicity of languages and cultures that need reflection in USIA output. There is such variety in our output-and a lot of it. And we could use even more. Many of the elements I have just mentioned contribute toward reflecting the variety that is modern Africa. Further, constant cable traffic between our field posts and Washington give us an ear to local ground swells of mood and opinion. Post playback is a big part of our media operations. In addition we experiment and innovate. I have recently commissioned an officer to the sole task of retailoring our print and picture output to African tastes and attitudes. He will travel between several major posts in Africa with a regional service center as his home base. Parenthetically, let me add that since many of Africa's educated classes received their education in England or France, the two languages of English and French will continue to be prominent in our product. This in no way disparages a native African cutlure, but it does reflect the background and the training of many of the target audiences which it behoves us to reach. The Commission then went on to call for a more balanced presentation of Negroes and whites in the United States. This has been a paramount concern of the Agency for endless months and we are grateful to the Advisory Commission for adding their voice to our concern. I can begin by saying that a more balanced presentation is being accomplished. As always, I can add that we are not yet perfect in this regard. Part of this is the problem of definition: just how much is a "balanced" presentation? Should we do two films on Negro Americans a year, or a dozen? Of every 100 photos that go to Africa, should 10, 20, or 30 cover Negro subjects? In any single group photo, should there be 1, 2, or 10 Negroes shown? The answer plainly lies not in numbers or formulae but in an attitude and an impression. The attitude must be one of awareness of a need to reflect the role of Negroes in American life. The impression must be that we accomplish a success in sincerity in reflecting that attitude. 96552-63- -2 |